God's Favor

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man."

Proverbs 3:3-4

 

We all want well-being and God's favor and graciousness in our lives.  A good name can carry us a long way in the sight of God and man.  In the Hebrew culture your name preceded you, meaning that who you are as a person was well tied in with your name.  It isn't much different for us today.  Our names tend to carry our reputation and our character before us.  When we accept Christ into our lives we become new creatures and we are given a new name.  This doesn't necessarily mean that we take on a literal new name, but we develop a new identity in Christ, as we follow Him and His will for our lives.  But, there is a requirement for us to have good favor in the sight of man, and more importantly, before God.  Yes God's grace, through faith, enables us to have salvation, but not necessarily favor.  God's favor refers to his graciousness towards us, in our lives.  Certainly grace is a free gift given to us when we have faith in Jesus Christ, but the graciousness of God's favor describes more of his accommodation or benevolence towards us as walk with him.  The way that we invoke this sort of favor in God's eyes, and for that matter, in the sight of men as well, is through our actions.  Specifically, the scripture above tells us that the way to win favor is by walking in love and faithfulness.  Now this sort of love is not a feeling towards someone or something, this is not simply walking through life with a loving feeling.  And likewise, the faithfulness commanded in this verse, is not simply a belief in something, but rather, these two words are action words.  We invoke the graciousness and favor of God, and man, in our lives, when we have a walk that is full of the actions of love and faithfulness.  We show our love by being gentle, kind, patient, merciful, and gracious towards others in our lives.  Our faithfulness is demonstrated through the daily actions we take in our lives.  As we sacrifice and live lives centered on God and others, we begin to take action steps of faith.  The love and faithfulness that we demonstrate in our daily walk with Jesus, ultimately ends with the victory of favor in the sight of God and man.  Perhaps, the other important lesson is that we are to bind this reminder around our necks and write it on our hearts.  We are to be reminded to live loving, faith-filled lives, loving God and people, because we are so apt to quickly forget the love God has shown to us.  Today, pray and ask the Lord to give you the strength to show love and demonstrate your faith in your actions today.  Actions for God's glory, and for the peace and joy of others.  Trusting that as we put God and others first in our daily actions, we will win the victory of God's favor in our lives!  Love you all!  Praying for you and yours!  Have a blessed day, it's your choice!